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Message from H.H. John Paul II
At my honorable brother Roger Cardinal Etchegaray 1. I am very grateful to hand over to you, Cardinal, my personal greetings to the esteemed representatives of the Christian churches and communities and of the great world religions that gather for the XVII International Meeting of Prayer for Peace, with the theme �War and Peace � faith and cultures meet.� I would particularly like to thank the bishop of Aachen, Mons. Heinrich Mussinghof and the faithful of the diocese that co-operated at the realization of this meeting. In 1986, when I wanted to begin in Assisi a new road of which Aachen is a new halting place, the world was still divided in two parties and oppressed by the fear of nuclear war. When I saw how compelling the need of the poor was to be able to dream again of a future of peace and prosperity for everyone, I invited the believers of the different world religions to gather in prayer for peace. I imagined the great vision of the prophet Isaiah : all the peoples will come from different places on earth to gather around God as one, great, multiform family. That is the vision the blessed John XXIII which inspired him to write the encyclical Pacem in Terris of which we commemorate the 40th anniversary this year. 2. In Assisi that dream took a concrete and clear shape, enlightening many wishes of peace in our souls. We all were delight. Unfortunately, that gasp was not picked up with the necessary readiness and promptness. During these years we invested very little to defend peace and support the dream of a free-war world. We preferred to develop particular interests, lavishing huge riches in other ways, especially for military expenses. We all assisted to the development of egocentric passions for our own borders our own ethnic group and our own nation. Sometimes even religion was submitted to violence. Within few days we will remember the tragic attempt to the �Twin Towers� in New York. Unfortunately, together with the Towers, also many hopes of peace seem to be collapsed. Wars and conflicts continue to prosper and poison the life of many people, mostly of the poorest Countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. I am thinking about tens of wars still acting and about that spread war represented by terrorism. 3. When might all the conflicts cease? When might the people finally see a reconciled world? We will not facilitate the peace process by leaving it prosper, with guilty unawareness, injustice and inequality in our planet. Poor Countries often became places of desperation, forge of violence. We do not want to accept the war to dominate the life of the world and of the peoples. We do not want to accept the poverty as the constant mate of all nations� existence. That is why we wonder: What shall we do. And, moreover, what can believers do? How to affirm peace in this time full of wars. So, I believe these �International Meetings of Prayer for peace� organized by the Community of Sant�Egidio already are a concrete answer to these questions. They have taken place for seventeen years, and even their peace fruits are evident. Every year people from different faith meet, get to know one another, dissolve tensions, learn to live together and share a common responsibility towards peace. 4. Meeting in Aachen at the beginning of this new millennium, is meaningful once again. This city, placed in the heart of the European Continent, clearly speaks of Europe�s ancient tradition: speaks of its ancient roots, starting from the Christian ones that harmonized and consolidated the others too. Christian roots are not a memory of religious exclusivism, but a basis of freedom, because the make Europe a malting pot of different cultures and experiences. It�s from these ancient roots that European peoples got the spur that led them to touch the borders of the earth and to reach the depth of the man, of his inviolable dignity, of the basic equality of everyone, of the universal right to justice and peace. Nowadays Europe, while widening its union process, is called to find this energy back, recollecting the awareness of its deepest roots. It�s not healthy to forget them. Just presuppose them, is not enough to light up souls. To silence them, dries up hearts. Europe will be as stronger for the present and the future of the world as much it will quench its thirst at the sources of its religious and cultural traditions. The religious and human wisdom Europe accumulated during the centuries, despite all the tensions and the contradictions that accompanied it, is a patrimony that once again may be spent for the growth of entire human kind. I am convinced that Europe, steadily anchored to its roots will accelerate the process of internal unification an d will offer its essential contribution to progress and peace among all the peoples of world 5. In a divided world that leads more and more towards separations and particularisms, there is urgent need of unity. People of different religion are called to discover ways of meeting and dialog. Unity is not uniformities. We cannot build peace in mutual ignorance but trough dialogue and meeting. This is the secret of the Aachen meeting. 6. Every one coming here can say that on this road peace among the people is not a far utopia. 7. �The name of the only God must become more and more as it is, a name of peace and an imperative of peace.� (Novo millennio ineunte 55). That�s why we have to intensify our meeting and lay solid and shared foundations of peace. These foundations disarm the violent call them back to reason and respect, cover the world with an act of peaceful feelings. With you dearest brothers and sisters, �let us continue with determination the dialogue� (Ecclesia in Europa) may this third millennium be the time of the union around the only God. The scandal of division is no more bearable: it is a repeated no to God and to peace. Together with you illustrious representatives of the big world religions, we would like to intensify a dialog of peace rising our sight towards the Father of peoples recognize that all differences do not lead us to clash but to respect, to sincere collaboration and to the edification of peace. With you men and women of lay tradition we feel we have to continue with dialog and love as the only ways to respect the rights of everyone and face the challenges of the new millennium. The world needs lots of peace. As believers, the way that we know to reach it out is praying Who can give us peace. The way we all can go along is the way of dialogue within love. With the weapons of prayer and dialogue, then let us walk on the way of future. From Castel Gandolfo 5 September 2003
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